Construction and Autry-Chauncey ownership
In the wake of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) lifting its freeze on the award of new television stations, three Tucson radio stations applied for three channels. The Old Pueblo Broadcasting Company, held by Gene Autry and Tom Chauncey and owner of Tucson's KOPO (1450 AM) and owned by Gene Autry and Tom Chauncey, filed for channel 13 without opposition on June 21, 1952, and was granted a construction permit to build on November 12.[1][2] Construction got under way in early December on an interim transmitter facility mounted on the AM radio tower, as 500 ft towers were not yet available,[3] and on a television addition to the KOPO radio facility on West Drachman Street.[4]
On January 13, 1953, at 1:13:13 p.m. (13:13:13 in 24-hour time), the KOPO-TV transmitter was turned on.[5] As construction in the television studio was still in progress, no programming was aired[6] until February 1, when the station began to carry programs from CBS and the DuMont Television Network. The day before, a dedicatory program was broadcast from the studios.[7] Network presentations had to be aired from kinescopes until a coaxial cable hookup was completed in September to be shared by KOPO-TV and new station KVOA-TV, allowing Tucsonans to see live network shows.[8]
KOPO radio and television became KOLD radio and television on April 30, 1957. The KOLD call letters had been used by the Autry-owned station in Yuma until it was sold; that outlet became KOFA and closed in 1963. Autry and Chauncey owned KOOL radio and television in Phoenix; as was done there, the phones were answered "It's KOLD in Tucson".[9] The main transmitter was moved to Mount Bigelow in 1961, simultaneously with KVOA-TV; KGUN-TV had been built on the mountain five years prior.[10]
Evening News, Knight-Ridder, and News-Press and Gazette ownership
In December 1968, Autry and Chauncey announced the sale of KOLD-TV, separate from the radio station, for $3.8 million to the Universal Communications Corporation, the broadcasting arm of the Detroit-based Evening News Association.[11] The FCC approved of the deal in 1969, though it required the E. W. Scripps Trust to divest itself of its holding in the Evening News Association, as Scripps-Howard Broadcasting owned four VHF stations (of a limit of five), and Evening News now would own two (KOLD-TV and WWJ-TV in Detroit).[12] The commission tweaked the ruling to allow Scripps to retain an interest of one percent.[13] The radio station, split from channel 13, reverted to its former KOPO designation.[14]
The Gannett Company
Turnaround
In 1993, New Vision Television, a new broadcast station group based in Lansing, Michigan, bought NPG's entire television station group of the time, which included KOLD and stations in five other markets.[28] New Vision took over before the end of the year and immediately made moves to shore up flagging employee morale at KOLD. In addition to a new general manager, New Vision began planning for a new facility on Tucson's northwest side with nearly twice as much space as the Drachman facility, which the station had outgrown.[29] The new facility, outfitted with a news studio called the "Newsplex", debuted in late 1994, before New Vision sold its stations to Ellis Communications in 1995; Ellis was in turn folded into Raycom Media in 1997.[30] Raycom would house its centralized design operation, Raycom Design Group, in Tucson.[31]
Shared services agreement with KMSB and KTTU
On November 15, 2011, the Belo Corporation, then-owner of local Fox affiliate KMSB and MyNetworkTV affiliate KTTU, announced that it would enter into a shared services agreement (SSA) with Raycom Media beginning in February 2012, resulting in KOLD taking over the two stations' operations and moving their advertising sales department to the KOLD studios. All remaining positions at KMSB and KTTU, including news, engineering and production, were eliminated, and master control operations moved from Belo's KTVK in Phoenix to KOLD. Though FCC rules disallow common ownership of more than two stations in the same market, combined SSA/duopoly operations are permissible.[32]
Sale to Gray Television
In 2018, Raycom Media was acquired by Gray Television. The $3.6 billion transaction gave Gray its first station in Arizona. The arrangements with KMSB and KTTU remained unchanged.[33][34][35][36] The sale was approved on December 20 of that year[37] and was completed on January 2, 2019.[38]
